Working Out Your Salvation- Philippians 2:12-18

The foes of the spiritual life are distraction, complacency, and pride. Growth comes when we realize our need for personal growth and take responsibility for that maturing process.

The Lord Jesus Christ has given Christians an incredible pattern of selfless humility, obedience to the Father, and sacrifice (2:6-11). His example can be followed. Paul did so and calls on believers to do the same.

Paul commended past obedience and urges believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” He did not say “work for your salvation.” Observe Ephesians 2:8–9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Believers in Christ have been justified by grace and now Christians are called to self-activity, to the active pursuit of the will of God, to the promotion of the spiritual life in ourselves, to realization of the virtues of the Christian life, and to a personal application of salvation. We must ‘work out’ what God in His grace has ‘worked in’.